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Jesse, First, let me apologize for a somewhat
misleading subject line. My goal is to define a project that uses both Flex and
Flash components in the same project. It simply appears that an Actionscript-only
project is the most likely to work. In Flex speak, what I think this means is
that I would like to create an Actionscript project that embeds both an
Application container and a non-Application container. For example, if a
high-level description of my project is something like this: Everything from 0,0 to 200,300
is my (Flex) application container where I’ll do Flex stuff and
everything else on the screen is where, perhaps, I’ll draw Sprites and
have them bounce around. And, as either container generates events, either
container can add listeners to process them. Then it appears the standing advice is to
create and separately compile a SWF component for the Flash stuff and embed it in
my Flex app. Is this really the only route? In my ideal world, I could embed a “canvas-like”
component in my Flex application, and then draw, play with Sprites, or run
animation-type stuff within it. I’ll certainly settle for less, but from
a big picture sales/marketing perspective, this is what Java (and WebStart) can
do (albeit with much more work but at least a bit more consistency of approach).
The combination of Flex and Flash are both
superstars within their respective domains - but on first glance, it is not
quite clear they can play together very well. -Mark -----Original Message----- If you are looking for a HelloWorld,
see the bottom of this email. Here's the quick(?) skizzy on the various
technologies. Don't have time? Read to the
######### to skip the background. Flash Player 8.5 is engineered to
work with the improved ActionScript 3 language, and have pimp new features. ActionScript 3 is a clean-up of
ActionScript 2, a stricter adherence to ECMA (depending on who you talk to),
and organized around the new package organization structure with additional
constructs added in. Can you create applications alone
with those 2 technologies? Yes. Would I personally want to?
Hell no. If you paid me too? Nope, because I'd inform you that you
are over-paying. Flex Framework 2 is the creation of
a set of compoents and framework classes to do all the things needed to create
applications. Your buttons, and dropdowns and datagrids, your data
classes that expose server operations in a clean and easy to use API. Your
modality, focus management, binding, etc. The same reason you use the Flex
Framework 2 to create applications instead of pure ActionScript 3 is the same
reason you use Rails for Ruby, ActionStep for C, Cake for PHP... common
problems, tasks, and needs are solved by well written and proven application
component frameworks. Re-inventing the wheel, while cool from a
developer's standpoint, is not cost-effective business. On the flip-side, there are many who
will never use the Flex 2 framework. For example, I currently cannot use
it's pre-decessor, the v2 component framework for Flash 7 on my cell phone; I
have to resort to pure ActionScript 2 and modified-Flash Player 7
technology. I have no choice, the CPU and RAM requirements of the phone
force me to do so. Naturally, 2 things happen; the scope of my work is
greatly limited, and I still make at least a lean set, enough to get me to an
acceptable level (buttons, labels, image loaders, etc.). Now, Flex is unique in that mxmlc,
the commandline compiler, actually knows about things like MXML as well as
ActionScript files, and compile both into a SWF. This is further expanded
upon because the mxmlc and the Flex Framework were built in tandem, allowing
certain compilation features and framework features to be mutually exclusive in
benefit. Therefore, while there is no reason someone couldn't port the
ActionStep framework to ActionScript (they are actually...), Flex Framework has
an advantage out of the starting gate because it takes advantage of some of the
new features mxmlc has in regards to creating SWF's. Bottom line, while you can do this: var a:Sprite = new Sprite(); addChild(a); a.addEventListener(Event.CLICK,
onPress); var g:Graphics = graphics; a.beginFill(0x000000); a.lineTo(100, 0); a.lineTo(100, 22); a.lineTo(0, 22); a.lineTo(0, 0); a.endFill(); ...using the framework, you can do
this instead: <mx:Button
click="onPress" /> Beyond the portability of the code,
let-alone readability, it's approachability from those with an HTML background,
it has many other benefits not so easily visible. - built-in focus management - already looks like a button - has an optional label - has rounded corners looking more
like a button than a box - is in the MX namespace, allowing
other buttons to be differentiated - has rollover states ... I could go on all night. Yes, there is more overhead, but it
is negligible, ecspecially with the speed improvements made in Flash Player
8.5. At this point in the software industry, there is little point to do
these things in code when months of development consisting of dozens of
developers, qa, managers, etc. has already been done for you.. and it's free I
might add. ...unless of course you are
developing for a phone, set-top box, XBox, or some other low-resource environ,
where I'd concur it is a wise decision to abandon the framework. Of
course, we aren't there yet. ######### Bottom line, if you create a Flex
project, you have to use Flex components (at least at the forefront) as shown
here: ----- Original Message ----- From: Mark Wales Sent: Subject:
[flexcoders] Actionscript-based Applications with Flex 2 I am interested in
writing an “all Actionscript” application (i.e. using the
Actionscript project option within the Eclipse-based Flex Builder) that
combines both Flex-based and traditional Flash-based components. For example, I want to
define a Canvas on one side of the screen and populate it with the traditional
Flex-based components then create things like DisplayObjects, Sprites, whatever
on the other side – while having events from both “sides”
intermingled (for lack of a better word) using events and listeners. I am fine
going with a strictly “Flash 8.5” diet (that is the future after
all, right?). Everything I read seems
to imply that these must be in different SWFs and that there is a fair bit of
gymnastics involved in achieving even nominal interoperation between the two
paradigms. Am I missing something?
Are there any “simple” examples out there to illustrate how this
might work? (Preferably ones that don’t require CF like the FileUpload
example on the Macromedia site, don’t try to get fancy with MovieClips
and animation, etc.) The ideal scenario would
be an application where, on the Flex “side” I could pick
“square” from a pull-down list of a few standard shapes, press a
button, and something vaguely resembling that description would appear using
flash components. Then, when that component was clicked/moved, perhaps it could
make the name of the event that fired show up in a Flex label. Effectively the
“Hello World” of the new and improved Actionscript. Does anyone
have anything like that? -Mark
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- [flexcoders] Actionscript-based Applications with Flex 2 Mark Wales
- Re: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based Applications wit... JesterXL
- RE: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based Applications... Mark Wales
- Re: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based Applicat... JesterXL
- RE: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based Applicat... Roger Gonzalez
- RE: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based Appl... Mark Wales
- Re: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based... JesterXL
- RE: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based... Roger Gonzalez
- Re: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based... Joe Berkovitz
- Re: [flexcoders] Actionscript-based Applications wit... Darron J. Schall
